My thesis investigates the construction of democratic ideology in classical Athens. Ideology has often provided an alternative tool to formal institutions for the study of Athenian political life. An approach that reconciles institutions and ideology can provide us with a fuller understanding of Athenian democracy. Rather than as a fixed set of ideas, values and beliefs shared by the majority of the Athenians, I argue that Athenian democratic ideology should be seen as the product of a constant process of ideological practice which took place within and was influenced by the institutions of the democracy. My thesis focuses in particular on the construction of shared ideas and beliefs about Athens’ mythical past. Ch. 1 lays down the methodology of my work, which is inspired by the trend in the political sciences known as New Institutionalism. Ch. 2 explores the relationship between myth and Athenian democratic institutions. I show that the Athenians interacted with myth at all levels of their public and private lives, and were thus able to appreciate mythical variants and their potential ideological value. I also show that Athenian democratic institutions were characterised by specific discursive parameters which conditioned the behaviour of Athenian political actors. A comparison between mythical narratives produced for public and private contexts shows that the discursive parameters of Athenian democratic institutions influenced the construction of shared ideas about the mythical past in Athenian public discourse. As proven in Ch. 3-5, the Athenians emphasised different values and mythical variants depending on the institutional settings of the democracy. Ch. 3 analyses the influence of institutions on the values of charis and philanthrōpia in the myth of the Athenian war in defence of the Heraclidae. Ch. 4 explores the use or absence of hybris in accounts of the Attic Amazonomachy produced for public and private contexts. Ch. 5 explores how the myth of autochthony was conceptualised in terms of exclusiveness or collective eugeneia in different Athenian institutions. My research therefore provides a dynamic and multifaceted picture of Athenian democratic ideology, and shows that the Athenian democratic institutions enabled the Athenians to produce multiple and compatible ideas about their mythical past.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines how the ideal of the Australian pioneer woman has been so broadly circulated in Australian national social memory. Through the study of the dissemination of the social memory in a range of diverse sources, I will scrutinise the tensions that have existed around this ideal; how these tensions have been reconciled into a dominant narrative; and how they have shifted through the time of the inception of the legend to the present day. In its approach to the creation of social memory, to understand the changing influences of this particular memory in the Australian psyche, this thesis draws upon a number of types of sources for history that have tended to be overlooked – such as headstones, popular and family histories, and museum exhibitions. Significantly, the thesis will examine the role that such non-traditional accounts of the past have played in the transmission of social memory. Most people do not gain their knowledge of the past through intensive and exhaustive research; instead, they appropriate, as their own, the messages and meanings that they are fed through a variety of modes. The relationship between sources and social memory is a symbiotic one, where the sources are informed by social memory, and then in turn shape and elaborate social memory. In so many cases, the very creation of sources happens within the parameters of the national social memory. These sources are then drawn upon by subsequent generations to form their own social memory of pioneer women. This thesis will demonstrate that social memory is not rigid, but instead is subjected to shifting energies and changing tensions; and explain, through a discussion of a diverse range of sources through which it is disseminated, how memory remains fluid so that it is able to respond to the needs of the community that it serves. Australia’s pioneer woman remains an important aspect of the national identity – her creation and, thus, significance situated firmly in the present.

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Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines how the ideal of the Australian pioneer woman has been so broadly circulated in Australian national social memory. Through the study of the dissemination of the social memory in a range of diverse sources, I will scrutinise the tensions that have existed around this ideal; how these tensions have been reconciled into a dominant narrative; and how they have shifted through the time of the inception of the legend to the present day. In its approach to the creation of social memory, to understand the changing influences of this particular memory in the Australian psyche, this thesis draws upon a number of types of sources for history that have tended to be overlooked – such as headstones, popular and family histories, and museum exhibitions. Significantly, the thesis will examine the role that such non-traditional accounts of the past have played in the transmission of social memory. Most people do not gain their knowledge of the past through intensive and exhaustive research; instead, they appropriate, as their own, the messages and meanings that they are fed through a variety of modes. The relationship between sources and social memory is a symbiotic one, where the sources are informed by social memory, and then in turn shape and elaborate social memory. In so many cases, the very creation of sources happens within the parameters of the national social memory. These sources are then drawn upon by subsequent generations to form their own social memory of pioneer women. This thesis will demonstrate that social memory is not rigid, but instead is subjected to shifting energies and changing tensions; and explain, through a discussion of a diverse range of sources through which it is disseminated, how memory remains fluid so that it is able to respond to the needs of the community that it serves. Australia’s pioneer woman remains an important aspect of the national identity – her creation and, thus, significance situated firmly in the present.

No Brasil, os desastres relacionados às chuvas são recorrentes visto que estes compõem, aproximadamente, um quarto dos eventos oficialmente registrados (VALENCIO; VALENCIO, 2010). A ineficácia em torno das atuações para mitigação dos desastres torna este cenário preocupante, visto que no período de janeiro de 2003 a dezembro de 2013, foram decretadas 20.766 portarias de reconhecimento de Situação de Emergência e Estado de Calamidade Pública no país. Na perspectiva das Ciências Sociais, o desastre consiste em um acontecimento multidimensional, que possui caráter social, ambiental, cultural, político, econômico, físico ou tecnológico (OLIVER-SMITH, 1998), e que não pode ser compreendido, portanto, como evento pontual, por deflagrar uma crise instaurada no corpo social (VALENCIO, 2012a). Em vista de compreender as dimensões materiais e simbólicas do desastre, o presente trabalho analisou a memória social de idosos em relação ao desastre deflagrado no município de São Luiz do Paraitinga/SP em janeiro de 2010, sob uma perspectiva do desastre vivenciado (MARTINS, 1992, 2000). Este estudo se caracterizou como pesquisa sociológica de base qualitativa, consistindo em três partes, a saber: a revisão bibliográfica, a pesquisa documental, e a pesquisa de campo. A pesquisa bibliográfica, consistiu na análise dos principais autores no tema de desastres, vida cotidiana, memória social e idosos. Já a pesquisa documental, caracterizou-se pela preparação e fundamentação para a pesquisa de campo, por meio da análise do discurso institucional sobre o desastre no município de São Luiz do Paraitinga/SP. E, a pesquisa de campo, foi realizada a partir da observação direta e participante, da coleta de relatos orais (QUEIROZ, 1987) e da fotodocumentação (MARTINS, 2008). A partir dos resultados analisados, após quatro anos do chamado dia do desastre, percebeu-se que este ainda permanece na vida dos que o vivenciaram (VALENCIO, 2012a). Além da reconstrução no plano material, no plano simbólico, os medos e anseios ressurgem ao relembrar aspectos essenciais de um modo de vida que foi perturbado. Com isso, as pessoas já não se reconhecem no território, caracterizando-se, portanto como um processo de desrritualização, o qual desfaz diversos significados dentro da estrutura simbólica (THORNBURG; KNOTTNERUS; WEBB, 2007). E, de modo geral, a memória do desastre vivenciado se configura, por meio da conciliação entre as memórias oficiais e as individuais (POLLAK, 1992). Sendo assim, são pelos desencontros, pelas constantes rupturas, construções e reelaborações do passado, forjados pelos diferentes sujeitos, que a memória social acontece. Tal memória não permanece intacta nem coesa, pois é uma constante representação de algo já vivido e reacomodado. / In Brazil, the rain related disasters are recurrent since these represent, approximately, one-fourth of events officially registered (VALENCIO; VALENCIO, 2010). The ineffectiveness around the work for mitigation of disasters makes this a troubling scenario, since in the southeast of Brazil, from January 2003 to December 2013, were enacted 20.766 administrative rules in the Recognition of Emergency and State of Public Calamity. From the perspective of the social sciences, disaster consists of a multidimensional event that has social, environmental, cultural, political, economic, physical or technological (OLIVER-SMITH, 1998) aspects, and cannot be understood as a punctual event by triggering a crisis into the social structure (VALENCIO, 2012a).In order to understand the material and symbolic dimensions of disaster, this dissertation analyzed the social memory of the elderly regarding the disaster happened in São Luiz do Paraitinga / SP in January 2010, from the perspective of experienced disaster (MARTINS, 1992 , 2000).This study was characterized as a qualitative sociological research base, consisting of three parts, namely: literature review, desk research and field research. The bibliographic research consisted in the analysis of the main authors on the topic of disaster, everyday life, social memory and the elderly people. The desk research was characterized by the preparation and justification for field research, by analyzing the institutional speech about the disaster in São Luiz do Paraitinga / SP. And the fieldwork was done from direct and participant observation, the collection of oral histories (QUEIROZ, 1987) and photo documentation (MARTINS, 2008). From the analyzed results, after four years since the day of the disaster, it was noticed that this still remains in the lives of those who experienced it (VALENCIO, 2012a).Besides the material reconstitution, on the symbolic level, the fears and anxieties rise in recalling key aspects of a way of life that has been disturbed. Therefore, people no longer recognizes themselves in the territory, characterized, thus, as a process of deritualization, which undoes many meanings within the symbolic structure (THORNBURG; KNOTTNERUS; WEBB, 2007). And, generally, the memory of experienced disaster is configured by means of conciliation between official and individual memories (POLLAK, 1992). Thus, due to divergence, constant disruptions, constructions and reworkings of the past, constructed by different individuals, that social memory happens. Such memory does not remain intact nor cohesive as it is a constant representation of something already lived and resettled.

Esta dissertação apresenta um estudo de memória social, envolvendo o espaço e construção da identidade de grupo do Instituto de Informática da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (INF/UFRGS). O recorte temporal é o período de 1989 a 1992, data de criação do INF/UFRGS e de sua transferência do Campus Centro para o Campus do Vale, respectivamente. O objetivo é compreender como docentes e servidores técnico-administrativos do INF/UFRGS reconstroem o processo de mudança do Campus Centro para o Campus do Vale no período de 1989 a 1992. Os marcos teóricos são estruturados com os seguintes autores: Maurice Halbwachs, Aleida Assmann; Michael Pollak; Stuart Hall,Martin Heidegger e Milton Santos. A metodologia apoia-se em entrevistas temáticas, semiestruturadas, e categorização dos resultados enfocando as relações entre memória, espaço e identidade. Como resultado, a investigação constatou que os entrevistados reconstruíram por meio de suas narrativas o processo de mudança e de construção da identidade de grupo. A pesquisa gerou duas produções técnicas: um informativo com registro de fotos e textos colhidos da pesquisa e um material didático com informações teóricas compiladas durante a pesquisa sobre a história do computador e da informática. / This dissertation presents a study of social memory, space and identity of the Information Technology Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (INF/UFRGS). The time cut is the period from 1989 to 1992. This period corresponds to creation of the INF/UFRGS and its transfer from Campus Center to Campus do Vale. The objective is to understand how teachers and administrative staff of INF/UFRGS recreate the process of moving from Campus Centro to Campus do Vale, from 1989 to 1991. The theoretical frameworks are structured with the following authors: Maurice Halbwachs, Aleida Assmann; Michael Pollak; Stuart Hall, Martin Heidegger and Milton Santos. Our methodology is based on thematic, semistructured interviews, and categorization of results focusing on the relationship between space and identity. Our research pointed out that the interviewees rebuilt through their narratives the process of change and group identity formation. The research generated two technical productions: an informative with record of photos and texts taken from the research and a didactic material with theoretical information compiled during the research on computer history and Informatics.

No Brasil, os desastres relacionados às chuvas são recorrentes visto que estes compõem, aproximadamente, um quarto dos eventos oficialmente registrados (VALENCIO; VALENCIO, 2010). A ineficácia em torno das atuações para mitigação dos desastres torna este cenário preocupante, visto que no período de janeiro de 2003 a dezembro de 2013, foram decretadas 20.766 portarias de reconhecimento de Situação de Emergência e Estado de Calamidade Pública no país. Na perspectiva das Ciências Sociais, o desastre consiste em um acontecimento multidimensional, que possui caráter social, ambiental, cultural, político, econômico, físico ou tecnológico (OLIVER-SMITH, 1998), e que não pode ser compreendido, portanto, como evento pontual, por deflagrar uma crise instaurada no corpo social (VALENCIO, 2012a). Em vista de compreender as dimensões materiais e simbólicas do desastre, o presente trabalho analisou a memória social de idosos em relação ao desastre deflagrado no município de São Luiz do Paraitinga/SP em janeiro de 2010, sob uma perspectiva do desastre vivenciado (MARTINS, 1992, 2000). Este estudo se caracterizou como pesquisa sociológica de base qualitativa, consistindo em três partes, a saber: a revisão bibliográfica, a pesquisa documental, e a pesquisa de campo. A pesquisa bibliográfica, consistiu na análise dos principais autores no tema de desastres, vida cotidiana, memória social e idosos. Já a pesquisa documental, caracterizou-se pela preparação e fundamentação para a pesquisa de campo, por meio da análise do discurso institucional sobre o desastre no município de São Luiz do Paraitinga/SP. E, a pesquisa de campo, foi realizada a partir da observação direta e participante, da coleta de relatos orais (QUEIROZ, 1987) e da fotodocumentação (MARTINS, 2008). A partir dos resultados analisados, após quatro anos do chamado dia do desastre, percebeu-se que este ainda permanece na vida dos que o vivenciaram (VALENCIO, 2012a). Além da reconstrução no plano material, no plano simbólico, os medos e anseios ressurgem ao relembrar aspectos essenciais de um modo de vida que foi perturbado. Com isso, as pessoas já não se reconhecem no território, caracterizando-se, portanto como um processo de desrritualização, o qual desfaz diversos significados dentro da estrutura simbólica (THORNBURG; KNOTTNERUS; WEBB, 2007). E, de modo geral, a memória do desastre vivenciado se configura, por meio da conciliação entre as memórias oficiais e as individuais (POLLAK, 1992). Sendo assim, são pelos desencontros, pelas constantes rupturas, construções e reelaborações do passado, forjados pelos diferentes sujeitos, que a memória social acontece. Tal memória não permanece intacta nem coesa, pois é uma constante representação de algo já vivido e reacomodado. / In Brazil, the rain related disasters are recurrent since these represent, approximately, one-fourth of events officially registered (VALENCIO; VALENCIO, 2010). The ineffectiveness around the work for mitigation of disasters makes this a troubling scenario, since in the southeast of Brazil, from January 2003 to December 2013, were enacted 20.766 administrative rules in the Recognition of Emergency and State of Public Calamity. From the perspective of the social sciences, disaster consists of a multidimensional event that has social, environmental, cultural, political, economic, physical or technological (OLIVER-SMITH, 1998) aspects, and cannot be understood as a punctual event by triggering a crisis into the social structure (VALENCIO, 2012a).In order to understand the material and symbolic dimensions of disaster, this dissertation analyzed the social memory of the elderly regarding the disaster happened in São Luiz do Paraitinga / SP in January 2010, from the perspective of experienced disaster (MARTINS, 1992 , 2000).This study was characterized as a qualitative sociological research base, consisting of three parts, namely: literature review, desk research and field research. The bibliographic research consisted in the analysis of the main authors on the topic of disaster, everyday life, social memory and the elderly people. The desk research was characterized by the preparation and justification for field research, by analyzing the institutional speech about the disaster in São Luiz do Paraitinga / SP. And the fieldwork was done from direct and participant observation, the collection of oral histories (QUEIROZ, 1987) and photo documentation (MARTINS, 2008). From the analyzed results, after four years since the day of the disaster, it was noticed that this still remains in the lives of those who experienced it (VALENCIO, 2012a).Besides the material reconstitution, on the symbolic level, the fears and anxieties rise in recalling key aspects of a way of life that has been disturbed. Therefore, people no longer recognizes themselves in the territory, characterized, thus, as a process of deritualization, which undoes many meanings within the symbolic structure (THORNBURG; KNOTTNERUS; WEBB, 2007). And, generally, the memory of experienced disaster is configured by means of conciliation between official and individual memories (POLLAK, 1992). Thus, due to divergence, constant disruptions, constructions and reworkings of the past, constructed by different individuals, that social memory happens. Such memory does not remain intact nor cohesive as it is a constant representation of something already lived and resettled.

This thesis is written in the format of a three act play. The author has elected this structure to frame the ethnographic data and analysis because it seemed befitting for telling my own life story alongside the memories of three generations of my matrilateral and patrilateral Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand. Thus, actors and scenes play out the thesis storyline in three parts where each act is titled Prologue, Dialogue and Epilogue. The Prologue, part one of this three act play, is three chapters which sets in motion the main actors - the research participants, and the scenes - the ethnographic context in which data was collected. It represents an ethnographic mosaic of memory and meaning as co-constructed by actors in recounting how they make sense of their place, their time, in a transnational history, that is, a family of stories among three Tongan generations residing largely in Auckland New Zealand. The Dialogue, part two of this three act play, is four chapters which maps out the theoretical and ethnographic territory that actors and scenes border-cross to visit. By this, I mean that research participants are political actors subject to social factors which shape how their memories and ensuing meanings are selectively reproduced in certain contexts of retelling the past and its relevance to understanding the present. The Epilogue, part three of this three act play, is the curtain call for the closing chapter. It presents an ending in which a new 'identity' entry made by the youngest Tongan generation creates possibilities for social change not yet experienced by prior generations residing in Auckland New Zealand. This thesis is woven into an overarching argument. Here, three generations of my matrilateral and patrilateral Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand intersect through two modes of memory and meaning. First, family reconstruct collective memories of 'identity' and 'culture' to make sense of how their ancestral origin, their historical past, is meaningful in their transnational lives and lifestyles. Second, inter-generational change among Tongan family residing in Auckland New Zealand is a social-political product of the transnational condition experienced by ethnic-cultural groups categorised as 'minorities' in the developed world.

Through diachronic examination of communicative acts, this dissertation explores intertwined processes of social memory, remembering, forgetting and place-making that have involved the former Cook County Hospital, located in Chicago, Illinois. With emphasis on narratives, nomination practices, and social contexts, this project illuminates and examines discourse conveyed during three 'moments' of material rupture and transformation of the Cook County Hospital facilities. A central perspective of this dissertation is that discourse articulated during these 'moments' reveals social remembering and memory with regard to place-making involving the former hospital and Main Building, as well as evidences social forgetting occurring between the years 1873 to 2007. For purposes of this project, three 'moments' of material transformation are regarded as bracketed by the years 1873 through 1876, the years 1910 through 1914, and the year 2002 through a year that is, as of yet, undetermined. These 'moments' were identified through examination of articulation and recoding of labels that could be regarded more informal than official for the county hospital facilities. This project illuminates the importance and complexity of naming in place-making processes, and the necessity of diachronic approaches to exploring social remembering and forgetting relevant to place. In highlighting the fluidity of social remembering, this dissertation emphasizes value of making primary source materials accessible in public domain, for future generations. Further illuminated is the value of newsprint as channels of mass communication through which aspects of social remembering, forgetting, and place-making can be investigated. Whether to demolish or re-use the now vacant Main Building became an issue of public contestation in 2002. This project was inspired, in part, by contestation concerning the proposed demolition, by senses of the city, and by the diverse and proliferating interdisciplinary ‘corpus’ of scholarship that articulates notions of social memory, remembering, and forgetting. / text

This study examines the role of place and ritual performance in the construction of subjectivities and social memories in relation to the 1890s Ghost Dance, a North American pan-Indian ritually-centered social movement that began in western Nevada and spread from the West Coast through the Great Plains during the last decade of the nineteenth century. This dissertation also explores efforts to alternatively preserve, promote, and eradicate practices representing two inherently contradictory spatial regimes, or ways of living as Beings-in-the-World. Such an analysis is done through the study of ritual and social responses to the spatial disruptions and collective identity ruptures evinced by Westward expansionism on the native peoples of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau called the Numa. This research is designed to advance knowledge of Ghost Dance ceremonial sites and ritual praxis in the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. This is done through the isolation of physiographic characteristics, performance characteristics, and cultural inscription practices contributing to the selection, valuation, and use of particular ritual settings for Ghost Dance performances. I hypothesized that three types of sites, World Balancing Places, Regional Balancing Sites, and Local Balancing Sites, or Regions of Refuge, were used for ceremonialism associated with the Ghost Dance among Numic people. Type I sites are ceremonial sites that were used consistently before the arrival of Euroamericans and continued to be used during the late nineteenth century for the performance of the Ghost Dances. Both World and Local Balancing Places are Type 1 Sites. Type II sites are defined as places that were selected as ceremonial sites after encroachment activities made the performance characteristics of Type I Sites nonviable. The social unit of the present analysis is the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. The current methodological framework has been formulated with the intent of producing a holistic treatment of Numic ritual landscapes as evidenced in Ghost Dance ceremonial sites. To this end, I have adopted an intersubjective and iterative approach that utilizes performance and narrative studies, behavioral archaeology, cultural landscape studies, and phenomenology. This research aims to contribute to the theory and methodology underscoring National Historic Preservation efforts.